What to make with needlepoint

What needlepoint can become

Turning stitched canvas into an object is called finishing, and a finisher is a professional who does it. The table lists what a piece can become, the usual size of each and who finishes it. A size is the stitching, not the canvas around it, unless its row says otherwise, and mesh is the number of holes in an inch of canvas. These are usual sizes, not standards: where a piece has to fit a ready-made item, measure the item before you stitch.

Pieces with no usual size, from bookmarks and handbags to rugs, are in the sections below.

Who does the finishing

A piece that stitching has pulled out of square is first blocked: dampened, pinned out square on a board and left to dry. After that there are three ways to go on, and needlepoint finishing explains all three.

• A professional finisher does the work, usually through a needlepoint shop. Finishers' waits are counted in months, so start early on anything wanted by a date.
• You finish it yourself. The table above says which pieces can be finished at home.
• You fit it into a ready-made item that has an opening for the stitching, such as a leather luggage tag or a clear acrylic coaster. Self-finishing needlepoint has the steps.

Choose before you stitch

If you can, choose what the piece will be before you stitch. That settles three things.

• The size. The table gives the size to aim for. To find the size of a design from its chart, where each square is one stitch, divide the squares each way by the mesh: 72 stitches come to 4 inches (10 cm) on 18 mesh. The canvas size calculator does the sum. Cut the canvas at least 2 inches (5 cm) larger on every side. Small pieces are mostly stitched on 18 mesh, which holds more detail, and large ones often on 13 or 14 mesh, where the stitches are bigger and fewer.
• The edge. Finishing can take up the outermost rows of stitching: they are turned under, sewn into a seam or wrapped over the edge of a board. So some pieces need two or three extra rows of background beyond the design and others none: expect two on each side of a belt, a dog collar, a purse strap, a key fob and a pillow whose needlepoint runs to its edge. Whoever will finish the piece decides, so ask before you stitch the outermost rows. Ask too whether a width given in stitches counts those rows: the belt's 22 stitches in the table make its whole width, so rows to turn under are extra, while one maker's dog collar is stitched 22 high and finishes about 1 1/8 inches (2.9 cm) wide, the width of 20 stitches, because the two rows at each edge are rolled to form the edge and show only in part. The ornament and pillow guides linked below say what rows their own methods use.
• The wear. A pillow gets more wear than a picture in a frame, and a belt or a chair seat more still. Stitch a piece that will get wear in a sturdy thread, wool or cotton, and in basketweave, a way of making the basic needlepoint stitch that resists snagging and has the thickness to last for years.

Small pieces

• Ornaments. An ornament is backed with fabric and edged with twisted cord, with a loop to hang it by. It can be lightly padded, or given a gusset, a strip of fabric around the side, that makes it up to half an inch (13 mm) thick. A flat ornament is among the easiest and fastest pieces to finish at home: see how to finish an ornament. Patterns: ornaments and Christmas ornaments, which include mini stockings.
• Coasters and trays. The needlepoint is made into a stiff insert: wrapped over board, backed with fabric and edged with cord. The insert slides into the open side of a clear acrylic coaster, or is set into an acrylic tray in the way its maker shows. It can be taken out of a tray for cleaning, or changed with the season. The insert has to fit inside the acrylic with its cord, and self-finishing needlepoint says how to measure for that. Patterns: coasters.
• Luggage tags. A ready-made leather tag has a window with a sticky sheet behind it. The canvas is trimmed until two or three rows of bare canvas are left around the stitching, it is pressed onto the sheet, and its edges are tucked under the leather. Nothing is sewn.
• Key fobs. A key fob is a strip of needlepoint that hangs from a key ring. The strip is backed with fabric or webbing and folded so that its two short ends meet, and the ends are pinched shut in a metal clamp. Leather fobs with a window, fitted like a luggage tag, are sold too. Patterns: key fobs.
• Bookmarks. A bookmark can be finished with no board and no padding. The bare canvas is folded to the back and a binding stitch is sewn over the fold all the way around, so that thread covers the edge. What is left of the canvas at the back is trimmed, fabric is fixed over the back, and a tassel is added.
• A first or quick piece. Go by the number of stitches. A key fob strip on 18 mesh is 126 stitches by 22, which is 2,772 in all. A 4 inch (10 cm) square on 18 mesh is 72 each way, or 5,184. A 12 inch (30 cm) pillow front on 13 mesh is 156 each way, or 24,336. The easy patterns are marked beginner, and most are 4 inch squares.
• With a child. Plastic canvas, a stiff sheet with holes in place of woven canvas, is a good choice for work with children and for pieces with sides, such as boxes: see plastic canvas needlepoint. The kids' patterns are designs for a child's room, and each page gives its level.

To wear and carry

• Belts and dog collars. A belt is a long, narrow strip of needlepoint mounted on leather with a buckle. Belt size is measured on a belt that fits, from the buckle to the hole used most. The stitching is shorter, because the leather at each end carries the buckle and the holes. How to make a needlepoint belt explains the measuring, and the belt size calculator turns it into stitches. A dog collar is a shorter strip, measured from a collar the dog already has. Finishers differ on the width and the length of both, so get those from yours first. Patterns: belts.
• Eyeglass cases. A canvas or chart for a case carries either one face, which is given a fabric back, or both faces on one canvas, which is folded in half and sewn along every edge but the one the glasses go in by. Check which kind yours is. Either kind is lined, so that the back of the canvas cannot scratch the lenses.
• Clutches, handbags and purses. Ready-made clutches, small purses in clear acrylic or in leather, have a place for a small canvas, which you fit yourself. A larger handbag is made to order by a leather finisher, who will want to know whether it is to be flat or have a gusset 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm) deep, how it closes, and what kind of strap it has.
• Also finished to order. Purse and guitar straps, hat bands, cummerbunds, wallets, flasks, zip pouches (small bags that close with a zipper), patches sewn to a jacket or a pocket, loafers and the straps of flip-flops. Line a zip pouch, because what goes inside could damage the canvas. Finishers and leather workers make these: ask first whether yours will take the piece, and get its size and shape from them.

For the house

• Pillows. A pillow is either knife edge, with front and back meeting in a single edge, or boxed, with a strip of fabric between them that gives it depth. A frame of fabric around the needlepoint, called an inset, makes a larger pillow from a small canvas. Pillow forms differ between makers, so buy the form before you settle the size. A knife edge pillow can be sewn at home: see how to finish a pillow. Patterns: pillows.
• Pictures. A picture is framed, at home or by a framer, and it pays to plan the piece around a ready-made frame: see how to frame needlepoint.
• Stand-ups. A stand-up is a piece finished to stand on a shelf or a table, and it can be flat or deep. The deep kind is a foam box covered in fabric, with the needlepoint on its front and often with feet and weights; it suits larger ornaments and mid-sized canvases. A finisher makes either kind.
• Brick covers. A covered brick is a doorstop or a bookend. Laid flat, the stitching is the brick's top with its four sides spread out around it: about the length plus twice the height one way, and the width plus twice the height the other. The cover in the table is about half an inch (13 mm) more each way. Bricks differ, so measure yours, and leave the four corners between the sides unstitched. The finisher sews the corners, wraps the brick in quilt batting or flannel against snags, laces the cover on underneath with thread run from edge to edge, and sews felt over that.
• Christmas stockings. A stocking is backed with fabric such as velvet, lined, and given a loop to hang by: see how to finish a stocking. Finishers also take mini stockings, and cuffs stitched on their own. Patterns: stockings.
• Also finished to order. Hanging signs, wall hangings, box lids and paperweights, and, for worship, tallit bags, tefillin bags and challah covers.

Seats, kneelers and rugs

These take the hardest wear and are stitched in wool. For the background of a chair seat, or of any piece that will be used as hard, use a slightly thicker thread: on 12 mesh, four strands of crewel wool, a fine wool, in place of one strand of tapestry wool, which is as thick as three. The thread guide says how much wool each mesh takes.

• Chair seats and footstools. Before you stitch, ask whoever will fit the seat what size and shape to stitch. The needlepoint is pulled over the seat and fastened underneath, and the spare canvas at the corners is cut away. That cannot be undone, so have it fitted by someone who has fitted needlepoint before; a needlepoint shop can say who. If the design is smaller than the seat, its background can be extended to fit, or the needlepoint can be framed in upholstery fabric.
• Kneelers. A kneeler is a firm cushion for kneeling on in church: needlepoint over a block of dense foam. Copy the size of the kneelers the church already has. The sides are either made of plain fabric or stitched on the same canvas as the top, often in a quicker stitch and one plain color, and the stitching is then larger than the top of the kneeler. Stitch a kneeler in basketweave on mono canvas, which is woven of single threads, and send it to a finisher that a needlepoint shop suggests, not to a general upholsterer.
• Rugs. A rug is stitched on rug canvas, a coarse double-thread canvas with 3.3 to 7 holes to the inch, or on Penelope canvas, a double-thread canvas made in finer sizes. Cross stitch in wool suits a large rug: it covers the canvas well and wears well. A rug goes to a finisher, so ask how it will be finished, and to what size, before you begin it.

A round canvas

A small round is the classic ornament: the ornament steps linked above are written for a round, and a round or a rectangle costs less to have finished than an irregular shape. A larger round can be a pillow, which should be boxed, and a square or rectangular piece can be centered in a round pillow too. A round picture goes to a framer.

A finished piece with no use yet

• Do nothing that cannot be undone. Leave the bare canvas around the stitching: the pins go through it when the piece is blocked. Keep glue off the piece, even in a frame, because glue limits finishing it another way later. A piece that is laced or pinned over a board can be taken off again.
• Test before it gets wet. Some dyes run in water: if you do not know what the threads are, or the canvas is painted, test the piece as how to block needlepoint describes before it is dampened.
• Let the size suggest the use. Measure the stitching and compare it with the table above. A piece meant for a pillow can be finished as a stand-up or set in an acrylic tray, a small one can be given an inset and become a large pillow, and several can be framed as a group.
• Store it well until you decide. Keep it somewhere cool, dry and dark, not in an attic or a basement, and do not leave it folded: a fold left for a long time becomes a crease. Old needlepoint says how to roll a piece and when to lay it flat.
• Remake it. A piece of your own that was finished as something you do not use need not stay that way: ask a needlepoint shop whether its finisher remakes finished pieces. For a piece that is old, read the next section first.

An old or inherited piece

Treat it as a textile first. Ask a textile conservator before it is washed, dampened, blocked, trimmed, glued or made into anything. If it is still on a chair or a stool, leave it there. Old needlepoint says how to handle and store such a piece, which kinds of damage are a conservator's work, and who can say what it is worth.